about it, it
would have helped me some, for he and she had grown up together and he
thought a great deal of her. But father said to mother, "You better not
go to master, for while he might stop the child from being treated
badly, Mr. Young may revenge himself through the overseer, for you know
that they are very friendly to each other." So said father to mother,
"You would gain nothing in the end; the best thing for us to do is to
pray much over it, for I believe that the time will come when this boy
with the rest of the children will be free, though we may not live to
see it."

When father spoke of liberty his words were of great comfort to me, and
my heart swelled with the hope of a future, which made every moment seem
an hour to me.

Father had a rule, which was strictly carried out as far as possible
under the slave law, which was to put his children to bed early; but
that night the whole family sat up late, while father and mother talked
over the matter. It was a custom among the slaves not to allow their
children under certain ages to enter into conversation with them; hence
we could take no part with father and mother. As I was the object of
their sympathy, I was allowed the privilege of answering the questions
about the whipping the groom gave me.

When the time came for us to go to bed we all knelt down in family
prayer, as was our custom; father's prayer seemed more real to me that
night than ever before, especially in the words, "Lord, hasten the time
when these children shall be their own free men and women."

My faith in father's prayer made me think that the Lord would answer him
at the farthest in two or three weeks, but it was fully six years before
it came, and father had been dead two years before the war.

After prayer we all went to bed; next morning father went to his work in
the barn-yard, mother to hers in the field, and I to mine among the
horses; before I started, however, father charged me carefully to keep
his advice, as he said that would be the easiest way for me to get
along.

But in spite of father's advice, I had made up my mind not to submit to
the treatment of Mr. Young as before, seeing that it did not help me
any. Things went smoothly for a while, until he called me to him, and
ordered me to bring him a switch. I told him that I would bring him no
more switches for him to whip me with, but that he must get them
himself. After repeating the command very impatiently, and I refusi